KEY POINTS:
Another New Zealand television and drama expert is taking a top role across the Tasman.
Caterina De Nave, the guiding light behind many of the country's most popular television dramas - from Shortland Street to bro'Town and Outrageous Fortune, is leaving her job as TV3 drama and comedy commissioning boss to take on a similar role with the public service network SBS.
"She is the best drama and entertainment commissioner New Zealand has ever had," said Jane Wrightson, chief executive of New Zealand on Air, which has handed tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers' money to De Nave projects.
"Choosing drama and comedy is never an easy job - it's expensive and high risk - so the TV networks put a lot of trust in their commissioners," said Ms Wrightson.
"But Caterina De Nave is one who has put in the extra yards - going out to the theatres and comedy venues and finding talent, nurturing and sticking with projects."
She had a reputation for fighting passionately for projects, some of which would not otherwise have been made.
De Nave joins the New Zealand contingent in Australian film and TV including SBS chief executive Shaun Brown and news boss Paul Cutler - both former executives at TVNZ.
In another culturally significant role, the chief executive of the New Zealand Film Commission, Dr Ruth Harley, has started work as chief executive of a new film industry body, Film Australia.
De Nave's exit after more than 30 years in the business - she started out in the late seventies making the children's series Playschool - leaves a big gap.
De Nave joined TV3 in 2000.
She has also worked on films such as Sione's Wedding and Out Of The Blue.
De Nave said she was leaving because of the opportunity to work with a wider selection of multicultural audiences.
She noted that funding for drama and comedy in Australia was much stronger than in New Zealand.
She insisted that New Zealand drama was in a good state.
The country had always produced good comedy and drama, she said, and television critics were taking a less negative approach than in the past.
